Recurring Findings

Corrections submitted ineligible inmate data in its federal fiscal year 2009 application for the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program funding. Specifically, Corrections' application included nearly 2,000 additional records in instances where an inmate had more than one Alien Registration Number for the same incarceration period. In addition, we reviewed a sample of 29 records to determine the inmates' citizenship status. For 10 inmates, Corrections had information in its files that these inmates were either U.S. citizens or permanent residents.

2007-08

Partially corrected. In an ongoing effort to comply with the Bureau State Audits’ (BSA) recommendation to seek the guidance from the federal government, staff of Correction’s Office of Legislation (OOL) and Offender Information Services Branch has attended training provided by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The training familiarized staff with the DHS Secured Communities Program- a program created by DHS to assist law enforcement agencies in obtaining immediate citizenship status of offenders.
Corrections is also working with the DHS/Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to develop an electronic process for obtaining information pertaining to the findings of ICE investigations. These findings would be provided to Corrections on a routine basis and would assist Corrections in validating alien numbers and citizenship status.
The BSA findings that characterized Corrections of falsely submitting the 2,000 additional records are misleading. After several discussions with DHS/ICE, it has been confirmed that the 2,000 additional records are a valid representation of the California alien population. The DHS/ICE has informed Corrections that there are individuals with multiple alien numbers. For those individuals whose alien numbers can be consolidated, the DHS/ICE is in the process of consolidating these multiple alien registration numbers into one master alien number. The DHS has not yet completed this process.